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USI on the General Strike of the 14th of November 2014

Submitted by Secretariat on Sat, 11/29/2014 - 22:58

The General Strike of 14 November was proclaimed by the majority of base unions in Italy: CUB, Cobas, ADL, Slai-Cobas, USI splinter group, for the whole day and by USB for 4 hours. USI-AIT has called the strike for the whole day with an independent independent with this call: "Stop suffering layoffs! Let's fire the masters!" with the purpose to invite workers to take the ownership of those companies that are closing because of the crisis or a relocation of the business.

The main reasons for the proclamation of the strike were mostly against those laws the government is approving, in particular the Jobs Act , which is a anti-labour reform that will increase precarious work and will allow companies the utmost possibility to dismiss workers.

USI-AIT, while criticizing the way in which the strike itself was agreed, decided within the trade union secretariats rather than through an extensive comparison involving delegates and activists of all structures of base unions and beyond, has worked in a unitary path at a local level with members of base unions and the social area opposition where this was possible. Thus we took part marches in Milan, Florence, Trieste, Bari, Bologna and organized autonomous demonstrations in Parma, Modena, Cosenza, Ancona. Elsewhere our activists were integrated into local initiatives.

The strike was attended by hundreds of thousands of workers and the most evident effect was the block of public transport.

The marches were attended by thousands of workers and students who joined the protest, along with areas of social opposition, as the squats and the committees in defense of the territory.

In Milan, in addition to the parade of unions participated very basic, which we actively participated, there was a separate march followed by with a separate march of Fiom, the metalworking sector of the CGIL, that declared a last minute strike in the same day.

In Milan students were always loaded heavily by the police before Piazza Santo Stefano, near the public university, and even No Tav demonstrators were charged by the police.

It was a successful general strike, that was followed by national media that referred a positive evaluation, an important signal by workers and workers who are coming out of the torpor that so far characterized them, the accomplices state unions CGIL, CISL and UIL, going to connect with those important fights for the right to housing in neighborhoods through the practice of the occupation and defense eviction.

Surely our union is strengthened. Especially around the country is growing an atmosphere of opposition and struggle against the government of "broad consensus" (center-right and center-left united) under the leadership of the Democratic Party. Renzi and his ministers are receiving more and more pressing challenges from a social opposition ever wider, as is happening these days.